What Are Missy and Pharrell Working On in the Studio?

Timbaland isn’t the only super producer putting in studio time with Missy Elliott. A photo of another fellow Virginia great—Pharrell Williams—has popped up via Missy’s Twitter account, the caption indicating that the two are “hard at work.” Just what are they concocting? The 43-year-old hip-hop goddess remains consistently cryptic. The duo’s last collaboration, The Cookbook’s intergalactic “On & On,” was released 10 years ago. Let’s hope the magic is still there.

Read it at Vibe.

Kanye West Apologizes to Beck and… Bruno Mars?

It’s taken nearly three weeks, but Kanye West has finally reached out to Beck after protesting the rock star’s Album of the Year victory over Beyoncé at the Grammys. Taking to his Twitter account yesterday (February 26), ’Ye kept it simple: “I would like to publicly apologize to Beck, I’m sorry Beck.” It wasn’t the only sorry that Yeezy delivered; he also revealed his true feelings about Bruno Mars. “I also want to publicly apologize to Bruno Mars, I used to hate on him but I really respect what he does as an artist,” Kanye wrote, adding, “I also would love for Bruno to sing this hook on this song 88 Keys/Puff and I produced… I even asked Tyler to shoot the vid.” Leave it up to ’Ye to offer an apology and a pitch at the same time.

Mr. West made some more headlines during his sit-down with BBC’s Zane Lowe yesterday, a conversation in which Kanye broke down crying when speaking about one of his fashion mentors, Louise Wilson (“That’s never happened to me in an interview before,” he revealed.) When the inevitable topic of Drake arose, Kanye called him “the hottest rapper” and said he has no advice to offer the Toronto icon, merely telling him to “run, fly, go as fast as you can. Don’t stop.”

Read it at Pitchfork.

A$AP Ferg Says He’s Dropping Sophomore Album Before the Summer

The untimely death of A$AP Yams last month shocked the hip-hop world and devastated the A$AP Mob that he helped create. But the Harlem crew isn’t slowing down on its output. A$AP Ferg hopes to defrost the New York City streets with his second album—the follow-up to 2013’s Trap Lord—before the summer months hit. A self-described perfectionist, the 26-year-old rapper says he’s recorded a lot of songs and is just fine-tuning.

“It’s a lot of growth on this album,” says Fergenstein. “I’m talking about a lot of things. The substance is there. The lyrics is there. Sonically, music is another level… I’m just a better person. I’m a better leader. And shit, I just want to have fun. And you gonna hear a lot of fun in this album.” Ferg, who plays anchor on Meek Mill’s premature summer hit “B-Boy,” hasn’t yet revealed the name of his sophomore LP.

Read it at HipHopDX.